The Tory reward for women willing to hammer the poor.. a promotion

ESTHER McVey – who works closely with Iain Duncan Smith at the Department of Work and Pensions to slash benefits and reform welfare – stays in the role of Employment Minister but will now attend Cabinet meetings.

DAVID Cameron has rewarded the Minister who hammered disabled people with the bedroom tax and Atos tests with a major promotion.

Esther McVey – who works closely with Iain Duncan Smith at the Department of Work and Pensions to slash benefits and reform welfare – stays in the role of Employment Minister but will now attend Cabinet meetings.

The 46-year-old Liverpudlian is prized by the Tory hierarchy as a glamorous woman with a regional accent.

But the former daytime TV presenter and businesswoman is hated by disabled groups for justifying harsh cuts to benefits, including the bedroom tax and botched introduction of personal independence payments.

Yesterday, IDS and McVey were dubbed the Addams Family like the ghoulish TV characters after both survived Cameron’s Cabinet reshuffle.

They are joined at the DWP by Mark Harper, the immigration minister who resigned over hiring an illegal immigrant and has now been rethreaded as the new Minister for Disabled People.

Another woman given a higher profile in the reshuffle was a Tory MP who demanded a brutal cut to Scotland’s budget. Priti Patel was made Exchequer Secretary, dealing with tax policy.

The 42-year-old sparked fury in 2012 by demanding that Scotland “pay for itself” and claiming we get a better deal than the rest of the UK due to policies like free prescriptions and tuition fees.

The right-winger called for reform of the Barnett Formula, which calculates how much money Holyrood receives from Westminster.

SNP Westminster leader Angus Robertson said: “Today’s developments are proof beyond doubt Scotland would be singled out for more Westminster cuts in the event of a No vote.

“Priti Patel is on record stating the debate on Scotland’s future provides a good opportunity to slash spending.

“She also claimed people in Scotland put a strain on public finances – despite the fact we have paid more tax per head than the rest of the UK for 33 years.”

Patel, whose parents were driven out of Uganda by Idi Amin, became the Tories’ first female Asian MP when she won her seat in Witham, Essex, in 2010.